Eaves gutter cleaning device



July 3, 1962 w. H. ENTLER 3,041,655 EAVES GUTTER CLEANING DEVICE FiledJuly 26, 1960 INVENTOR. WILLIAM H. ENTLER ATTORN EY Uite States atcnt3,041,655 Patented July 3, 1 962 fiice 3,041,655 EAVES GUTTER CLEANINGDEVICE William H. Entler, 518 NW. Hoyt St., Portland, Oreg. Filed July26, 1960,'Ser. No. 45,464 2 Claims. (Cl. 15-600) This invention relatesto the removal of leaves, trash and sediment from eaves gutters. Itrelates particularly to means usable for performing the necessaryperiodic cleaning of such gutters on ordinary dwelling houses,especially houses having sloping roofs.

Heretofore in cleaning such eaves gutters it has generally beennecessary for the person engaged in the work to mount a ladder leadingfrom the ground to the eaves gutter. An object of the present inventionis to provide a cleaning device which will enable such gutter cleaningto be done by someone standing on the ground and thus without the use ofany ladder.

Another object of the invention-is to provide an improved cleaningdevice for gutters which will effectively dislodge any accumulation ofheavy sediment or dirt from the bottom of the gutter, in addition to theusual flushing of loosened debris from the gutter.

A further object of the invention is to provide an efiicient guttercleaner which can be arranged for being manually moved along the gutterin either longitudinal direction by someone located on the ground.

An additional object is to provide a simple,'practical and relativelyinexpensive device which can be attached to an ordinary garden hose andwhich will enable the desired gutter cleaning operation to be performedquickly, easily and thoroughly.

The device by which these objects and other incidental advantagesareobtained, its construction, and the manner in which it operates, will beeasily understood from the following brief description with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the device in operation;

FIG. 2 is a sectional elevation through the eaves gutter of FIG. 1,taken on line 22 of FIG. 1, showing the front elevation of thescraper-nozzle of the device, the scraper-nozzle being shown detachedfrom its mounting pipe for clarity;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the scraper-nozzle and thus a view of thescraper-nozzle taken on the line indicated at 4-4 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of the scraper-nozzle taken on line 55 ofFIG. 2 and thus also showing the scrapernozzle separated from themounting pipe.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the device includes a pipe 10, preferablymade of aluminum or other suitable light weight metal, having a reverseor U-shaped bend at the top end. The pipe 10 is of sufficient length toreach the the scraper-nozzle taken eaves from the ground, and preferablyconsists of a single length of pipe, as shown in FIG. 1, although itmight also consist of two telescoping lengths of pipe should it bedesired to have the pipe adjustable in length. The bottom of this pipeis provided with the usual coupling means, indicated at 11 in FIG. 1,for connecting such bottom end of the pipe to a garden hose 12. A simpleshut-off valve 13 is also provided in the pipe near the bottom end forcontrolling the passage of water up through the pipe.

The curved upper end 10' of the pipe terminates in an externallythreaded head 14 (see FIGS. 2 and 5) so arranged as to enable a specialscraper-nozzle to be adjust ably and removably attached to the pipe.This special scraper-nozzle is designated as a whole by the referenceried on the ring 18, the interior character 15 and constitutes the mainfeature of the device.

The scraper-nozzle 15 has a solid neck portion 16 which is cylindricalexcept for a water channel groove 17 on its leading side, the diameterof the neck portion being less than the internal diameter of the pipe 10and its threaded head 14 so as to enable the upper end of the neckportion 16 to extend into the pipe when the scrapernozzle is mounted onthe pipe. A ring 18 is rigidly secured on the neck portion 16 in therelative position shown in FIG. 2. A clamping collar 19 is rotatablycarwall of this collar being threaded and being of proper diameter toenable the collar to engage the externally threaded head 14 of the pipe10. The collar 19 has a bottom inturned flange 19' engaging theunderside of the stationary ring 18. A washer 20 or other suitablematerial is placed on the ring 18 to form a tight connection with thehead 14 of the pipe. Thus, when the scraper-nozzle 15 is attached to thehead 14 of the pipe by the collar 19, the water from the pipe will bedischarged forcibly in a form of a jet through the groove 17, passingunder the washer 20, ring 18 and flange 19' of the collar. I

An integral blade 21 leads from the neck portion 16 beginning a shortdistance below the stationary ring 18, as shown in FIG. 2. The groove 17for the water jet gradually terminates on the leading face of the upperportion of this blade 21. The blade curves forwardly a short distancebelow the neck portion and the major portion of the blade extendsforwardly substantially at a right angle with respect to the axis of theneck portion. The side edges of the blade 21 are substantially parallelthroughout the extent of the blade and the blade is made suflicientlywide so that it will extend over the major portion of the bottom of astandard size eaves trough. A width of about one and one-quarter inchesfor the blade has been found to be very satisfactory for use in thevarious eaves troughs commonlyinstalled on dwelling houses.

The thickness of the blade 21 decreases to some extent towards the frontor leading edge of the blade, as shown in FIG. 4, and, since the frontedge of the blade is straight and extends at right angles to the sideedges, the front edge will be thrust between any accumulation of debrisor dirt along the bottom wall of the gutter as the scrapernozzle ismoved along on the'bottom of the gutter. The lower end of the neckportion acts as a reinforcement in back of the curved portion of theblade, as shown at 16' in FIG. 4. Consequently the blade and the entirescrapernozzl-e will be strong enough and rigid enough to with stand hardusage without being made excessively heavy.

Due to the flat top surface of the blade 21 the water jet deliveredthrough the groove 17 in the neck portion of the scraper-nozzle fans outover the blade as the groove 17 merges with the blade surface. Thiscauses the water to spread over the blade as illustrated in FIG. 3, withthe result that the water is impinged against both sides of the gutteradjacent the side edges of the blade in an oblique forward direction, aswell as being impinged directly against any material ahead of the bladeand encountered by the travel of the blade. In this way the combinedaction of the blade in scraping looseany material in its path in thebottom of the gutter, and the action of the fan-shape water jet washingloosened material along the gutter in the direction of movement of thescraper-nozzle, result in rapid and satisfactory clearing and cleaningof the gutter without any special eifort on the part of the operatorpositioned on the ground, the operator neath the gutter to escape anywater or dislodged material which may be discharged over the edge of thegutter.

' In FIG. 1 the scraper-nozzle 15 is shown being moved along the bottomof the gutter 22 in the direction indicated by the arrow X, that is,towards the right as viewed from the operator. However, in someinstances it may be better to operate the scraper-nozzle moving in theopposite direction. This may depend upon the location of the downspouts,or may be necessary due to transverse top bars or supporting strapswhich prevent continuous unobstructed travel of the cleaning device overthe entire length of the gutter in one direction. In such cases thepositionvof the scraper-nozzle with respect to its support-' ing pipecan easily be reversed byloosening the collar 19 sufficiently to enablethe blade to be turned 180, as indicated by the broken lines in FiG. 3,and then tightening the collar 19 again. This simple adjustment requiresonly a minimum of time and eitort on the part of the operator.

Thus all that is necessary for the satisfactory employ-' ment of thedevice for cleaning an eaves gutter is to have the pipe of 'sufiicientconvenient length'corresponding to the height of the eaves gutter fromthe ground and, to have a supply of water delivered through the pipefrom the attached hose 12 sufiicient to cause a suitable Washing jet tobe discharged over and from the scraper blade 21 as theoperator movesthe pipe and the mounted scrapernozzle along the gutter.

I claim: 1 1

1. In an eaves gutter cleaning device of the character describedincluding an elongated conduit pipe assembly 'with a substantiallyreverse bend portion at the top and controlled connected'means at'thebottom for delivering water under pressure into the conduitpipe-assembly, a scraper-nozzle secured on the upper end of the conduitpipe assembly, said scraper-nozzle having a substantially cylindricaltop portion, means for'securing said top portion to said conduit pipeassembly, a bottom flat scraper blade portion on said scraper-nozzleextending substantially at right angles to the axis of said top portionof said scraper-nozzle'and adapted to ride along on the bottom of'theeaves gutter, a curved integral intermediate portion on saidscraper-nozzle connectingsaid scraper blade portion and said topportion, and a water jet channel on said scraper-nozzle extending downfrom said top portion and having an outlet on said intermediateportion'above the top faceof said flat scraper blade portion so as tocause the water from said jet channel to spread over and be dischargedfrom said top face of said scraper blade portion,

whereby said device can be moved along an eaves gutter with said scraperblade portion riding on and scraping the bottom of the eaves gutterwhile the water discharged over the top of saidrblade portion willcomplete the cleaning of the eaves gutter.

2. In an eaves gutter cleaning device of the character describedincluding an elongated conduit pipe assembly with a substantiallyreverse bend portion at the top and controlled connected means at thebottom for delivering water under pressure into the conduit pipeassembly, a scraper-nozzle removably and reversably mounted on the upperend of the conduit pipe assembly, said scrapernozzle having a top neckportion adapted to be inserted in said upper end of said conduit pipeassembly, said upper 7 and an open water jet channel on saidscraper-nozzle extending down from said top neck portion and terminatingon said intermediate portion above the top face of said flatscraper-blade portion so as to cause the water from said jet channel tospread over and be discharged from said top face of said scraper bladeportion, whereby said device can be moved along an eaves gutter withsaid scraper blade portion riding on and scraping the bottom of theeaves gutter while the water discharged over the top of said bladeportion will complete the'cleaning of the eaves gutter. a e

References Cited in the file of thistpate'nt UNITED STATES PATENTSFerrin .Sept. 7, 1 926 M-izelle Nov. 3, 1959 V V OTHER REFERENCESPopular Science Monthly, September 193 8.

